


Til Tomorrow's Show

by nontrivialproof



Category: American Vandal (TV)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Yuletide 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:54:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21823378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nontrivialproof/pseuds/nontrivialproof
Summary: It's senior year, Vandal's been canceled, and Sam and Peter are going ghost-hunting.
Relationships: Sam Ecklund/Peter Maldonado
Comments: 13
Kudos: 56
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Til Tomorrow's Show

**Author's Note:**

  * For [firstlovelatespring](https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstlovelatespring/gifts).



> I've never written AV fic before, so this was a new experience. Happy Yuletide!

“Did you hear El Camino is haunted?”

Sam, sitting on the floor and leaning against Dylan’s beanbag, cranes his neck up. “Oh, shit, really?” Sam has a strong suspicion that everything that’s about to come out of Dylan’s mouth will be bullshit, but he’s stoned enough to play along.

Dylan nods. “Yup. I mean, I know a lot of people don’t, like, believe in ghosts, but this shit is undeniable.”

Peter, who is sprawled over the entire couch and who Sam genuinely thought was asleep, chimes in, “How do you know?”

“I’ve got some boys there,” says Dylan, vaguely. He’s preoccupied looking under him for his phone. “Hold up, it’s on Instagram.”

While Dylan types (which frankly takes way longer than it should), Sam looks at the apparently-awake Peter.

Peter is staring at the ceiling with a look that could be the weed or could just be Peter’s current mood. Ever since Vandal got canceled he he’s been… well, he hasn’t been strange, exactly, but he hasn’t quite been _Peter_ either.

Especially not today. They had agreed, when the rumors about other streaming services started popping up, that they would give themselves a little time, and then they would call it. A couple places did end up making some moves in that direction, but apparently 20,000 signatures on a Change.org petition doesn’t buy anything these days, and nothing stuck. That morning, Peter had given Sam a look and shrugged. Sam had Tweeted a thank you to the fans from his personal Twitter, had said he and Peter were looking forward to getting through the rest of senior year without any serious crimes. And just like that, it was over.

Hence the getting high with Dylan Maxwell at 3:00 P.M.

“Here.” Dylan shoves his phone at Sam, and Sam takes it. Just as Dylan said, it’s a video on somebody’s finsta.

With some effort, Sam stands and leans over the arm of the couch, angling the video so that Peter can watch, too. He hits play, and the doors on a set of lockers begin opening and shutting autonomously in a cacophony of clanging metal. As the video reaches the end of its loop, the lights flicker out, partially dimming the hallway.

The caption reads, “Ladies, get you a ghost that can do both.”

Sam stops the video and clicks to read the comments.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I missed this.”  
“Cancel school 👏 cancel school 👏 cancel school 👏”  
“I love this school 🙃”

The last comment has a reply. Sam clicks on it and reads:

“Imagine going to Oceanside and not having a school ghost. This post made by #ElCaminoGang”

It’s at this moment that he and Peter, in unison, start laughing. Seeing Peter laugh loosens something in Sam’s chest, which just makes him laugh harder. “Dude,” he chokes, “What the fuck is happening at El Camino?”

Peter smiles up at him. “I mean, ghosts, apparently.”

At this point, Dylan cuts in from across the room, “See? I told you. They’re thinking of, like, postponing school. How come we never got one of those at Oceanside?”

Sam looks over his shoulder. “Oh, we had a ghost,” says Sam.

Peter groans.

“What?” asks Dylan. “Nah, man, I’m, like, pretty sure I would remember if we had a ghost —“

Sam soldiers on, ignoring the arm Peter has thrown dramatically across his face. “I mean, it was a pretty low-key —“

“He means the theater ghost,” interrupts Peter.

Dylan furrows his brow. “We had a ghost in the theater department? Is that why all the theater kids were so —“

“Cult-y?” asks Peter.

“We are not cult-y,” says Sam. Then: “Okay, we’re a little cult-y. But we have to be! We’re haunted!”

“Every theater kid in America thinks their theater is haunted,” says Peter.

“Just ignore him,” calls Dylan. “I believe in your ghost, Sam.”

“Thank you, Dylan,” says Sam, grinning. “See, Peter? Dylan gets it.”

“Ghosts aren’t real,” says Peter, almost moaning.

“Okay, no,” says Dylan. “Ghosts are totally real. You should talk to Ganj, her house growing up was totally haunted. And you saw that video! What was that, if not a ghost?”

“Something with a perfectly logical explanation,” says Peter.

Sam doesn’t quite know where he stands. He has a (most likely theater-induced) predilection toward all things spooky and unexplained, but he still wants to see the flow of evidence before he’s really convinced of anything. Still, it’s fun to rile Peter up, especially given his recent borderline mopiness, so he says, “Not everything can be explained, Peter. If there’s anything you should have learned from Vandal, it’s that it’s never the most likely solution.”

Peter pulls himself into a sitting position. “It’s the most likely solution in like 70% of cases.”

Sam doesn’t think that’s true, but he doesn’t know enough about non-high-school crime to dispute it. _Their_ mysteries have always been weird, at the least.

“Oh shit, Vandal,” says Dylan. “You guys could totally solve this. You just gotta figure out what the ghost wants and give it to ‘em.”

“Vandal is over,” says Peter. “Remember?”

“Come on,” says Dylan, “You’re just scared that you’d prove the ghosts are real.”

“No,” says Peter, slowly, “If we investigated, we would figure out exactly what non-supernatural thing is happening. But we don’t have funding or an audience, so.”

Dylan shoots him a look. “Dude, did not having a Netflix deal keep you from helping me? No way. And I know that’s true, cause I didn’t pay you shit. And now somebody else needs you: that ghost. To solve its unfinished business so it can move on.”

“Why do you know so much about ghosts anyway?” asks Peter.

Somehow, that leads to Dylan reciting the entire plot of an episode of Ghost Adventures, which Sam tunes out. Because the thing is, Dylan is right. El Camino is a few miles away. They could investigate, easy.

Maybe it’s not over yet.

\--

So it’s not over. One more case, to film and post on Vimeo with royalty-free music and dirt-cheap graphics. It’s perfect.

Their first stop is a meeting with the newly-chartered Supernatural Society, which Peter reached out to through email. The club president, a junior named Freya, had excitedly invited them to their lunch meeting.

They cut second period to drive over. In the parking lot, Sam is surprised when Peter stops him at the car door.

Peter reaches into his pocket and rummages for something. “Here, man,” he says, roughly handing it to Sam. He walks around the car before Sam has even looked.

Sam looks down. It’s a small wheel of red string. It’s not a lot, but it makes something in Sam’s throat tight. It's this stupid crush; he knows he has it, that is makes him read everything with more meaning than it really holds.

“Thanks,” he says, opening the car door and swinging inside.

Peter doesn’t look at him. “No problem.”

\--

The Supernatural Society meeting is weird.

Freya introduces them and everybody claps. It’s super awkward. Then they sit quietly and listen to the minutes of the meeting. Mostly it’s about trying to capture ghost on camera and what kind of rituals they could do to convince it they are on its side. At the end of the meeting, they do this weird thing where they walk around and tell each other their scariest real-life ghost experiences.

Most of the people from the school seem to actually have some at this point, which is also pretty weird. Sam films several of their stories, but when he bumps into Peter he lowers the camera. “I used to have a friend named Peter Maldonado,” he says. “Sometimes I can still —“

“Shut up with that,” responds Peter. 

\--

They interview Freya after school gets out. “It's so cool that you guys are looking into this,” she says, sitting down and adjusting her hair. Sam had been wondering if the girl who founded the ghost-hunting club would be goth or even hippie-ish but she doesn’t seem to be either. She’s got scrunchies on her wrist, and she warns them she’ll have to rush out of the interview to get to practice.

They get her situated in a talking head, and Peter starts, “So, uh, can you start off by telling us... why do you believe in ghosts? Before all of this started happening.”

“Oh, I didn’t believe in ghosts,” she says with complete nonchalance. “I just started the Supernatural Society for fun around Halloween last year.” She sighs. “So yeah, it was pretty crazy when the real ghost showed up and everyone expected me to know what was going on. But I mean, obviously I believe in ghosts now.”

“Would you say that most of the student body believes in the ghost?”

She waves her hand noncommittally. “Almost all, I’d say?”

“What about the administration? Do you think they believe, or do they just think it's students making something out of nothing?”

Freya shrugs. “I mean, the principal isn’t going to just come out and say El Camino’s haunted, but, like. She knows it’s haunted. But honestly, as much as it freaks people out, nothing the ghost has done has been that bad, so as much as everyone wants it I doubt she's about to cancel school.”

“Could you be more specific? What kind of stuff does the ghost do, exactly?”

Again, Freya gestures widely. “He slams doors, flickers lights, knocks over lunch trays. Sometimes teachers walk into their classrooms in the morning and all their whiteboard markers are uncapped or something. But nobody’s gotten hurt or anything.”

“Wait,” said Peter, “he? Do you have a reason to think the ghost is male?”

Freya blinks, seemingly surprised. “Oh,” she says, “Sorry, I thought you’d know. Everyone’s pretty convinced the school is being haunted by Ken Thompson.”

Sam and Peter exchange a look. “Could you expand on that?” asks Peter.

“Yeah.” Freya ran a hand through her hair. “So, Ken was actually my coach on the baseball team last year. But he was, like, super old. He retired, and then passed away over the Summer.”

Peter looks confused. "Why is the student body so convinced that it's him?" 

Freya shrugs, then stands up and slings her backpack over her shoulder. Semi-apologetically, she says, “Sorry, like I said, I have practice. And honestly, I don’t know. It just makes sense, I guess? Nobody else near the school has even come close to dying.” She makes to leave, but she pauses before she exits the door, looking over her shoulder. “Hey, can you give you some advice?”

“Sure,” says Sam.

“You guys are filming a ghost-hunting show, right? So stay overnight. If you want to prove the ghost is real, you need to see it for yourselves.” With that, she wavs and leaves.

\--

Sam and Peter listen to her footsteps as she walks down the hall. When the sound has faded, Sam turns to Peter. “So, it was definitely her, right?”

Peter furrows his brow. “What? She seemed nice.”

“Well, sure,” says Sam. “But did you see the way she got right out of here when you questioned her story? She's probably just using this old dead guy to promote her ghost-hunting club." 

Peter nods thoughtfully. "If they aren't going to cancel school, she does seem like she has the most to gain." He waffles for a moment. "But I don't know, I’m still curious about this Ken guy.” He starts to pack up the camera equipment. 

Sam asks, "It's weird that she wanted us to stay overnight, right?"

Peter shrugs. "I mean, her whole thing is pretty weird."

"I don't know," says Sam, "late at night? It does seem like the right time to see a ghost."

Peter asks, "Are you just saying this to keep from skipping more class?"

"Dude, my physics grade cannot survive me skipping a week to stake out a different high school."

Peter nods thoughtfully. "I guess it's not technically breaking and entering if we just hang out here until school closes?"

"Plus there is no way the school district is shelling out for nighttime security guards."

"Okay but... this is what the dumbest teenagers do in the horror movie," says Peter. "Let's just acknowledge that."

"Oh, it's very stupid," Sam agrees.

\--

They hide out in an empty classroom until everyone's gone home and the El Camino building is dark.

They swing briefly back to Sam’s house to load up their backpacks with supplies, but they get back to El Camino before the school has completely shut down. Sitting in an empty classroom with a rolled up sleeping bag, scattered junk food wrappers, and a ouija board that Sam insisted on bringing although Peter refuses to use it, Sam is strangely reminded of the sleepovers they had years ago.

It’s nearly midnight, and Sam is lazily filming a vlog of Peter on his phone, when they hear a loud crash from down the hall.

Peter’s head snaps up. “Did you hear that?” he asks.

“Yeah,” responds Sam, “it sounded like —“

He’s interrupted by a second crash, this one slightly louder.

Peter stands up and Sam follows. Cautiously, the two walk to the door and peek outside.

They both jump at the sound of a third crash, this time louder still, although neither can make out any physical cause.

All the terrible decisions that lead up to this moment catch up with Sam at once. “All right,” he says, grabbing what he can of their stuff and haphazardly shoving it into a bag. “I don’t care if Freya said the ghost was harmless, we’re getting out of here.”

“Yes,” agrees Peter.

The two hurry for the doors, but it’s an unfamiliar high school, and the both get turned around. Running through hallways, it takes longer than it should to come across a door. As they move, the crashes become louder and louder sounding as though they’re coming closer and closer.

At some point, they break into a full-out run. At some point, Peter grabs Sam's hand. At some point, he registers Peter swearing, and yelling, echoes the sentiment: “Yeah, I am not dying here.”

\--

Flushed with adrenaline, they run out into the parking lot. They run until they get to Sam’s car, and Peter starts fumbling in his pockets for the keys. Sam slumps against the side of the car. Outside of the building, it’s oddly quiet. The parking lot is lit up by streetlights, and the moon is in the sky, and it’s so peaceful and mundane and normal compared to everything that just happened that suddenly he’s howling with laughter.

Peter looks up from his backpack and starts laughing, too. He stands up and stands next to Sam, and Sam slings an arm over his shoulder.

“That was so dumb,” Peter manages. “I really thought we were going to die.”

“I did, too!” cries Sam. “We gave in so easy!”

“We are the worst ghost hunters in the entire world,” says Peter.

“Oh,” says Sam, “absolutely. This should not be our job. Do you think we can get the Buzzfeed Unsolved guys to come deal with it?”

“What would you even tweet him?” asks Peter. “‘Hey, Shane, my friend and I stayed overnight in a school that’s not ours and got scared by a loud noise, can you come deal with it?’”

“Ugh,” says Sam, “I can tell you’ve never watched the show. We tweet at Ryan, not Shane.”

“Shut up,” says Peter affectionately.

Sam just smiles at him.

After a moment, Peter says, “Okay, but I’m not crazy, right? That really seemed like ghosts.”

“Oh, Peter, no! You are way to good of a detective to give into Dylan’s worldview!”

“You’re the one who said you wanted to believe!”

Sam heaves a heavy sigh. “As a joke, Peter, as a joke.”

Peter moves away from Sam finally pulling out the keys. Neither of them makes a move to get into the car. Sam registers once more that, were this a real horror movie, he and Peter would be dead.

Sam is staring at Peter, at the way Peter looks in the mix of moonlight and streetlight. His best friend and his stupid crush and the worst ghost-hunting partner in the world. He doesn’t really know what compels him to say it, when he’s spent the last few months finding ways to avoid the question, but he says, “Hey, are you okay?”

Peter gives him a confused look. “I mean, I’m never going in fucking El Camino again —“

Sam shakes his head. “Come on, dude,” says Sam. “I meant with Vandal ending.”

“Oh,” says Peter, as though he had honestly forgotten. “I’m fine. I mean... yeah, I'm fine. This kind of put things in perspective.”

“Right,” says Sam, nodding. He knows there’s more to be said, but he falters over how to say it. “It’s just. I know you wanted to make another documentary, and this is clearly not going to work out so —“

“It’s not just the documentary,” says Peter, looking at Sam again like it's obvious.

Sam just stares at him in silence until he continues.

“It’s just —“ Peter gestures broadly with his hand. “This, you know? Doing stupid shit together. Investigating. Hanging out.”

“We do hang out, dude,” says Sam. “We hang out all the time, what are you —“

“Yeah, but it’s like —“ Peter is still struggling. “It’s senior year, you know? Plus Vandal, it's a lot of endings.”

"Hey," says Sam, “There is no force in the world that could stop us from being friends. College doesn’t stand a chance.”

“Yeah, but…” Peter trails off. He looks up at the sky, and the moment is so, so close to being over.

And then all of a sudden, like a star just falling out of the sky and hitting him on the fucking head, Sam gets it. And he’s stupid for not having gotten it, really. For some reason, the only thing he can think of is the string.

“If we had died in there,” he says, “your last words to me would have been ‘Oh fuck, ghosts are real. Ghosts are fucking real.’ You good with that?”

“It’s… not ideal.” Peter takes a deep breath, and his next words hit Sam like a truck. “But I mean, I held your hand. That’s nice.”

Sam laughs lightly. “Yeah,” he says, and he grabs Peter’s hand again. “That was nice.”

And then he stops laughing. They both look at the school they don’t attend, the one-story building with the moon shining through the window.

“I don’t think this is our job,” says Peter.

“No,” agrees Sam. He looks back over at Peter. "You know I'm always going to want to solve mysteries with you."

Sam smiles at him. "Me, too." After a moment, he adds, "Not this one, though."

"Oh, absolutely not,” says Sam, and presses him against the car, and kisses him.

\--

In the end, before Shane and Ryan have even responded to Sam’s Twitter DMs (and before Dylan has even figured out how to contact Zak Bagans), everything sort of just stops.

The terrified Instagram and Twitter posts cease completely. Peter reaches out to several students for comment, and the consensus is that while the student body is very much on edge, no one has seen anything out of the ordinary.

Sam still firmly believes that everything was orchestrated by Freya and potentially the other members of The Supernatural Society, even if he can’t quite prove how.

Peter, however, has a different theory.

He swivels his laptop screen so that Sam can see the article he’s reading. It’s from a local paper, and it came out right around the time all the supernatural activity halted. “El Camino High School Baseball Team Defeats Oceanside in First Game of the Season.”

“Unfinished business,” explains Peter. “Ken knows the team is in good hands, and they defeated their rival. He could move on in peace.”

Sam looks away from the screen and at Peter. “Are you going to do the believing in ghosts thing forever just to annoy me? Because I foresee it getting old.”

“But Sam, after everything we’ve seen…”

Sam rests a hand on Peter’s back. “One, don’t you dare quote The X-Files at me right now. Two, you’re goddamn right I am the Scully of this relationship.”

Peter hums in agreement.

\--

So it’s over. It’s okay.

It’s their senior year. Sam’s email is like a landfill for college promotional materials, so if he’s getting new emails about mysteries, he doesn’t even know it. They’ve got the last round of important grades, rejections and acceptance letters, the passing on of the Oceanside AV club, Sam’s last musical, getting high with Dylan and having sleepovers with Ming.

Plus, Peter is still busy trying to edit Sam's shaky cell phone footage into something worthy of even Vimeo. It’s less of a mystery at this point and more of a weird, unexplained event in the history of Oceanside, California.

Sam watches him work for a while, laser-focused on his computer screen, before leaning down and kissing his cheek. They’ve got this, now, too, and Sam foresees it taking up a lot of his attention.

So it isn’t over. Not by a long shot.

**Author's Note:**

> Ghost-hunting meeting is fully based on a real ghost-hunting meeting which I attended.
> 
> El Camino is actually the only school in the same district as Oceanside. Pretty sure none of the rest of this is real though.
> 
> Title from "Remember My Name" by Mitski.


End file.
